A Series of Tubes

I got a mailer about the California propositions a little bit ago and I also realized that absentee voters will start getting their ballots.  It takes me a while to read up and collect information about the propositions and local candidates so I figure I’d post what I’ve found to make other people’s lives easier.  Here is how I am currently leaning on the California ballot initiatives along with audio of debates on many of them.  I’ll post more about local Santa Cruz County elections later:

Listen to this forum for the pro and con for propositions 7 and 10:

Propositions 7: No. This is supposed to support renewable energy in California. In the forum discussion from KQED the guy that supports this bill talks with a southern accent and worked in the energy industry. That’s not the best way to sell a California initiative. The sierra club does not endorse the bill which raises the obvious question: Why should I vote for a bill that is supposed to be good for the environment when environmentalists don’t support it.

Update:  The no on 7 campaign has a pretty good ad that  demonstrates the wide range of opposition towards prop 7.

Proposition 10: No. In order to get the signatures for a ballot initiative T Boone Pickens hired people to go out and collect them. He supports the bill because it mandates that tons of money go to fund natural gas. It is convenient that he just so happens to be in the natural gas industry. As you might expect it is a waste of tax money that funnels it to those of us in the natural gas industry. If you have a gas stove your bills for that will go up since the natural gas trucks will be competing for the same fuel.  T Boone Pickens was one of the major contributers to the swift boat veterans for truth and is a little out of place when pitching his ideas to Democrats.

Prop 1a: Yes. This proposition is for more public transportation and an increased rail system. California might get a high speed rail! I’m so voting yes.  Here is the forum show on that proposition. It also has a section on prop 4:

Prop 2: Yes. It allows animals to turn around. Why factory farms can’t figure out that animals should be able to turn around is an interesting question. Here are two programs on that one:

Prop 3: Currently unsure. This bond is for children’s Hospitals. I would vote for it in principal because children need hospitals, but I don’t know the details of the bill. The bill could be poorly worded or have random expenses that I don’t know about. I’ll update this post when I learn more about it.  In general I tend to vote no on things I don’t know enough about.

Prop 4: No. Requires parental notification for getting an abortion. This is a pro life bill that tries to limit abortion. The government shouldn’t have it’s hands in the affairs of a family.  The second half of the forum on prop 1a talks about this bill.

Prop 5: Yes. This bill would have more services to help people with drug problems instead of jailing them for a long time.  If you are in jail you learn how to be a criminal.  When people with Drug problems got to jail, they come out of jail with their drug problem untreated and more likely to commit other crimes.  I think this bill might be able to address this problem, but I haven’t heard the pros and cons on this proposition debated so my mind could conceivably change on this.

Prop 6: No.  More money for police officers/prisons.  I like police officers but I’m not sure that more funding for programs to police our way out of drug problems is a great idea.  The state is running a deficit and an initiative to carve out funds for fighting gangs would mean that other programs, such as education, would be cut or we would be going into debt faster.

Forum on prop 6 and 9:

Prop 7:  I wrote up my position on prop 7 and prop 10 at the beginning.

Prop 8: No.  Changes the state constitution to make gay marriage illegal.  Gay marriage does not affect me and if you want to get gay married, me or the state of California shouldn’t stop you.  It’s a free country and should stay that way for everyone.

Update:  The Mormons are pouring millions of dollars into the yes on 8 campaign.  I have noticed a lot of yes on 8 ads on the site.

Prop 9: No.  This allows families to attend the parole hearings and make statements when someone is about to be released from prison.  That sounds like a fair expansion of the rights of victim families.  Unfortunately that’s not all it does.  Read the LA times article on it and the ballotpedia page on it. Listen to the second half of the forum for prop 6 to hear a discussion about it.

Prop 10:  I commented on this along with prop 7 at the top of the post.  See above.

Prop 11:  Last Minute Change: No. I decided to change my vote because I looked into this bill a little bit more.  I decided that the way that the panel is decided creates more problems than it solves.  I don’t know how to solve redistricting issues but I don’t think this is it.  My initial opinion is below.

This changes the way districts are drawn in the state.  Redistricting is a way for politicians to allow themselves to have always Republican or always Democrat districts.  It’s a way for them to always get reelected.  I’ve heard the pros and cons on this and both have their points.  It’s not a perfect bill but I think it is an improvement.  Listen to the forum below, read up on it, and come to your own conclusion:

Prop 12:  This bill gives $1.8 Billion for veteran’s benefits.  I have not done any research on this proposition so I will not endorse or oppose this until I research more about it.

After writing this post I’ve come to realize how awesome KQED’s forum is.  Getting the two sides to debate the ballots really helps when deciding how to vote.  I’d only heard 1 of forum’s program’s on the propositions, but found their other programs on the other propositions through their website.